What Makes This Day Different? [Paperback]

Schlafer looks at the preacher's task at the high times of the church and the secular year, those occasions on which expectations run high and emotions can be intense. He explores the temptations and pitfalls of preaching at weddings and funerals; baptisms and ordinations; civic holidays like Memorial Day and Thanksgiving; and the high holy days of Christmas and Easter. He also discusses preaching at times of tension and conflict in the church, the responsibilities of a guest preacher, and how to handle preaching missions and retreats.

Included in each chapter are helpful summaries of what to include and avoid in sermon preparation, as well as excerpts of sermons illustrating the principles he outlines.

DAVID SCHLAFERis an Episcopal priest who has taught preaching at Nashotah House, Seabury-Western, the University of the South, Virginia Theological Seminary, and the College of Preachers. His books includeSurviving the Sermon, Your Way with God's Word, andPlaying with Fire.Schlafer conducts seminars and workshops on homiletics in the United States, Canada, and England.

In the early pages of this insightful book, David Schlafer meditates on the image of 'sun-catchers,' those little glass prisms that take sunlight coming through a window and separate it into the colors of the spectrum. The function of an 'occasional' sermon, he suggests, is similarly to select and focus the colors 'from the spectrum of God's grace both through and for the particular special occasion,' to be a 'grace-catcher' (19-20). . . .

Schlafer's analyses and suggestions focus on aspects of sermon preparation that are well within our control, offering approaches to letting those connections happen as well as hints for avoiding pitfalls. He helpfully distinguishes between different types of 'special' days: those that focus on the life of the individual (such as weddings, baptisms, or the life of a saint), those that focus on the day itself (such as Palml3